History of Avaren

[Izlin]

Once upon a time...

There was a glorious Kingdom called Avaren. The people there lived hard, but peaceful lives. The blacksmith toiled away in his forge, working to create a new world of metal for the people to live in. The farmer worked hard in his fields, hoping to keep their people alive to live and see the blacksmith's world. The Priest prayed to the almighty God who they believed created the world and gave peace to all who lived in it. As long as this God was happy, so too would they be. To make for better law enforcement, and less stress on the monarch, there were instead two. Two Kings and Two Queens held the scepters of power in Avaren. A rule nor a law could be made in that Kingdom without the consent of both parties. Though much turmoil could be caused within the actual House, throughout the Kingdom this meant nothing but the best interest. The future seemed to be one of beautiful, endless, struggling, peace.

But peace can never last forever.

Out of the far, distant, unexplored lands, came a mysterious traveler. The mysterious traveler looked upon the poor happy people with disgust, viewing them as lower lifeforms that had not seen the beauty of true civilization. For this mysterious traveler held something that these people could not comprehend. He held the power of magic. Beyond the rare 'miracles' that the people had seen occur when their God was exceptionally happy, the people knew nothing of this 'magic'. It could create fountains of endless water, food of the likes the people had never seen before, make hunting so utterly simple that the very luxuries of life were taken for granted and the struggle of life was seen as only a tiring session so that one's body did not go to waste. The man came before the Kings and Queens, begging their shelter. He said that something terrible had happened to the Kingdom he once came from, something that left it wasted and scavenged by beasts. He quoth that he was the only survivor, and that in exchange for their shelter he would teach them the way of magic.

One King and Queen did not agree. They believed that this 'magic' was unnatural, an unholy power to their God, and that to look between the lines, this magic that could create eternal peace did not, in fact, bring eternal peace upon the man's Kingdom. The other King, however, was obsessed with greed. He insisted that this power could only be used for good, and that he would rather see his people smiling happy and fat than struggling. His Queen disagreed. She agreed with the other pair, believing them to be correct and that the man's Kingdom fell because of their use of magic. She was not as devoted to their God as they were, and instead saw practical reasons. The King, being outnumbered by not only his counterparts, but by his own wife, was enraged. He came up with a compromise that while the man would not teach them magic, he would be permitted to stay in the Kingdom. The man humbly agreed, but he knew well what sin lurked in the second King's heart.

Indeed, he was right. The man was permitted to stay at the palace, and there was treated like a Duke. In secret, however, the second King took lessons from the man alone in magic. In time, he learned the power of puppet magic. Using this darkest form of magic, he took control of his wife and forced her to agree with him. This sudden change of heart made the other King and Queen question the judgement of the two. A full dispute now, the second King, with his puppet magic, went to the people and spoke words of trickery. He told them all of how wonderful life would be with magic, and convinced a good deal of them to lay down their shovels and hoes, their hammers and bows, and come with him into the glorious light of magic. In time, the first King forced the second King out, saying that what they were doing to the people of Avaren was against the will of their God. The second King and his puppet Queen were not bothered by this course of events. The two left Avaren gladly, and in exile took the Magician with them. Many of Avaren's citizens left with them, seeking new life in magic.

The Grand Magi, as they called themselves, ruled over a new land amongst the ruins of the old Kingdom of the Magi that the Magician had left. Generations passed from that day, and soon the Kingdom of the Magi, Aesir, was restored on Earth. The Magician alone remained alive, in Avaren or in Aesir, and remained a wise vizier to the Grand Magi. In time, he used his own puppet magic to force the new Grand Magi to attack the city that was once their own - Avaren. To retake the Kingdom was their goal. The descendants of the first King and Queen were on the throne now, and had long since forgotten the laws that once ruled their Kingdom. The idea of holding two Kings and two Queens on the throne at once was considered tyrannic, as only the memory of the second King and Queen's greed was in their minds. It was unholy. The fairy tale of 'magic' scared children in their beds, as it was a cruel twisted trick of monsters.

War was the art of Avaren. War in the form of swords and shields, bows and bucklers, hands and hammers. The people here, while refusing to use the art of mental energies and mana waves, trained their bodies to the peak of perfection. They lavished in the skills that God Himself had given them, and with this lived in that struggling but peaceful lifestyle. So when the day came that Aesir attacked, the people of Avaren were ready. It was a bloody clash that resulted in the destruction of many homes and families. In time, swords and staves were left battered and broken among the wastes of a field that once held cows and grass. Now all that remained of those days were streaks of burnt ground and skeletons lying littered across a wasteland. So few were the soldiers now, that the Kings themselves went off to war. The Magician, however, lay in peace and quiet back in the Palace of Aesir. He watched with disappointment as his army failed him, making plans for another rebirth for Aesir after this one fell. But when both Kings came face to face on the battlefield, one with iron sword, one with iron staff, they dropped their weapons and chose to fight no more.

Both knew that peace was the better option. When the Grand Magus and the Grand Master (as the Warrior Monarchs were called) questioned each other as to whom started the War, neither King could answer. It was in fact the Grand Magus's army that attacked first, but the Grand Magus could not remember ever starting it. Both returned to Aesir on a diplomatic treaty, and there the Magician's plot was revealed. He had created a never-ending cycle. He created magician Kingdoms called 'Aesir' over and over again, and used each to create a new Empire - if one faltered, he would create a new Empire out of another untouched city. The Grand Magus and Grand Master, together, finished the Magician and restored peace to their Kingdoms.

The Grand Magi, to ensure peace for the future, created a place called 'Heaven's Altar', which would suspend the Kingdom of Aesir in a heavenly realm where it could not touch the world below. Thus, sword and sorcery co-existed, and no war could ever be caused of it.

Generations have passed since that day, and this fairy tale has still been told to children for years and years...fact or fantasy? Does magic truly exist? Are there really places where people have never heard of it? Soon may come a time when these two worlds collide again...

[Izlin]

Generations have passed since that day. In both cities, the lines of succession had remained unbroken from their initial rulers, with the traditional titles of Grand Master and Grand Magus remaining.

In Aesir, the Grand Magus presided over his subjects from within the walls of the mages' academy, where student and veterans alike in the ways of magic trained and researched constantly to further their own knowledge and power, far removed from the rigors of everyday life, as they found magical ways to circumvent most normal inconveniences of life. Never were the events of the past forgotten, as all new initiates inducted into the academy were taught of their roots and learned why it was that they, with their far superior powers, must stay separate from the savage barbarians who dwelt beneath the clouds. In Avaren, however, knowledge of it’s sister city of Aesir is all but forgotten, falling to little more than tales told to children, often fraught with morals and life lessons. Magic itself seemed the stuff of legends to the citizens and warriors of Avaren.

The Grand Master of Avaren, though a kind and benevolent ruler, still kept to ancient traditions. One, in particular, where marriages were arranged based on political strengthening, would prove to be ultimately detrimental to the kingdom. For the queen of Avaren, born of a prestigious noble family and married to the throne to solidify their support, was said to have a slight mental instability. This manifested itself, as most such problems tend towards, at the most inopportune time; during the middle of a feast organized by the Grand Magus.

Shocking all the members attending the feast, she boldly proclaimed there to be witches and heretics running amok. While the Grand Magus had allowed citizens of Aesir free decision over whether or not they chose to attempt to live with the 'savages' or not, provided they never divulge any information regarding Aesir's existence. The Queen was, to a degree, correct. There were plenty of mages living in Avaren, though other than existing, they hadn’t truly done anything to justify the Queen’s actions. Thus began the violent attempts to “purge” Avaren of all users of magic and their allies. To aid in her crusade, she called upon the Church of Avaren, which responded both willingly and enthusiastically.

As more prisoners were taken, trials began to be held to decide the fate of the “heretics”. One knight, guilty simply by association with those possessing magic, divulged the location of the city of mages in order to escape. Without further question, the army of Avaren was mustered and sent to investigate and conquer. They would find upon arrival, however, that the knight had lied to them in order to make his escape. Unfortunately, however, the overzealousness of the church decided that the current King and Queen of Avaren were not truly fit to rule Avaren. Thus, while the Avaren army was off on a fruitless campaign, the head of the church staged a coup using his own personal troops, which succeeded in removing the King and Queen from ruler ship of Avaren and instead placed the church in direct control all of the cities affairs.

The army of Avaren, arriving at the Abandoned Citadel where they believed the city of mages to be found nothing more than a trap, staged by the Grand Magus, in order to occupy the army long enough to send in a small force to the dungeons of Avaren to break the captives held there free and return them safely to Aesir. To make things worse on the army of Avaren, a strange hive of creatures began attacking their forces before they were able to fully explore the Citadel. Though they easily drove these creatures back with minimal casualties and made an organized retreat back to Avaren, it was with dispirited surprise that they found out that ruler ship of the city had changed hands while they had been away.

Meanwhile, a rather well-known warrior of Avaren and one who sympathized with the mages plight set out to found the small town of Repaer, where many of those displaced from Avaren chose to settle and plot against the Church. After all, despite all the troubles the Church had inflicted upon the people of Avaren, the vast majority still remained devote followers of the new Grandmaster.

Eventually, the same knight who had lied his way out of the prisons of Avaren chose to return, for the new Grandmaster thought very highly of him despite his actions against the city. Unfortunately, his mission was foiled when the new ‘advisor’ to the king intercepted him, instead making it to seem as though the knight was seeking to assassinate the Grandmaster for his own gains. Seeing that his mission was a lost cause, the knight attempted to flee, taking refuge unintentionally in a forbidden library, sealed ages past by the rulers of Avaren. By this time there were soldiers, alerted by the advisor, who were arriving to apprehend the knight, led by the Grandmaster himself.

To make matters worse, the traitorous advisor, while trying to find and silence the knight before he could manage to speak with Vidar, accidentally stumbled upon an ancient tome amidst the now smoldering wreckage of former bookshelves. Recognizing it for what it was, he stole the tome and departed, leaving behind him a conjured batch of creatures in his wake to at least occupy the Grandmaster, if not outright kill him. In the resulting struggle, the knight abandoned his mission and managed to disappear into the chaos.

Though the Grandmaster was alive and well and his former advisor’s plot had been seemingly unveiled, it was clear that the kingdom would soon feel the culmination of consequences wrought by the Grandmaster’s decision to trust the strange man as his advisor. Thus, when the sky went black, it was with weariness, not surprise, that this new threat was greeted. It was at that point that two events occurred. Firstly, a messenger came barging into the Grandmaster’s council hall, bearing the message that the city was under attack from without by a nightmare army of nightmare beasts, undead, and other various hell spawn. Second, the blackened sky seemed to simply open up and begin to rain destruction from above. Bolts of lightning and fireballs, chunks of ice and boulders began tearing chunks out of Avaren Castle. The city was beset on all sides by a multitude of unknown foes.

[Izlin]

At the head of the army was a powerful and ancient sorcerer, seated upon his throne of bone guided by skeletal horrors which came to resemble some vile chariot. This sorcerer, bearing a grudge against both Avaren and Aesir for generations, had finally found uncovered the final piece that would at long last enable him to destroy the cities that had turned him out. For this was the same anonymous magician who had originally brought magic to Aesir. Now that his faithful servant had returned from Avaren with the key to his victory, he had set his master plan into motion.

Though, the dark sorcerer’s army was not responsible for all that afflicted Avaren. For a deal of time, since the beginning of Avaren’s wild witch-hunts, powerful mages within Aesir had been charged with turning their powers to scrying upon the happenings of Avaren. It was they who had alerted the Grand Magus when the apprentice had uncovered the ancient tome. For the greatest defense Aesir possessed was it’s near impenetrability, for the Heaven’s Altar would none through who came to Aesir with ill intent for the city or its ruler. Yet there was another secret means of accessing the city. The tome that was stolen, created while Avaren and Aesir were still on good terms, provided a final forgotten means by which the two cities might contact one another. Recognizing the threat present, the Grand Magus ordered his most powerful archmages to physically move Aesir and transport the floating city to lie directly above Avaren Castle. It was then that he called for a magical barrage to level the castle, as it was only from the very center of the castle that the tome might be used to gain access to Aesir, thus the threat might be averted before this weakness could be properly exploited.

As for the village of Repear, it was not to be forgotten. For the dark sorcerer was not too entirely focused on his primary goal to recognize the abundance of able combatants who were trying to work out a living separate from the constant strife of the two main cities; ones who might yet ride to Avaren’s aid to help break a siege. Though Repear was in an easily defensible location, they were caught completely unprepared when dark creatures began appearing within the middle of their town. Thus, the same position that made the city so easily defendable also proved to provide them with no viable escape route after they found themselves both circled from without and assaulted from within.

Back in Avaren, the Grand Master found himself in a rather dire position, yet he knew he must act, for every moment wasted was more lives lost. He was still the ruler of his people and knew that it was with them that hope for the kingdom lay, thus he commanded the churches entire order of paladins to aid in rounding up all the citizens to formulate some sort of escape plan while Avaren’s regular army held the walls. Reports came that the wall had been breached in places and that the fighting had taken to the streets of Avaren, yet the people had no place to be evacuated to, as the city was besieged.

Yet, by some miracle, the magical assault upon Avaren Castle abruptly halted. Before anyone could ponder as to the meaning of this, mages started appearing everywhere that groups of civilians were huddled together, guarded by bands of paladins and warriors who had been driven from the walls. One look and several words were all it took to realize that the new arrivals were not part of the horde assailing the city and, more importantly, they offered to use their power to evacuate the citizens of Avaren to a safe place to weather the storm.

Unfortunately, this act did not come without a price, for shortly after the magical assault on the Castle ceased and its attackers turned instead to saving the people of Avaren, the Castle gates fell to the invading army and the dark sorcerer gained access to the innermost chambers of the Castle, wherein he used the ancient tome to open a rift that would allow passage for all his minions directly into the hated city. As hordes of undead and worse flooded the streets of Aesir, the few remaining mages- the Grand Magus had ordered an evacuation of Aesir, all gathered around their King in defense of the Arcane Sanctuary. It was here in the nexus of Aesir’s magical power that they would make their stand.

Yet even the mages of Aesir couldn’t stand fast against the sheer numbers of foes they found themselves up against and slowly they gave way and the fighting took the individual rooms and corridors of the Sanctuary, while the dark sorcerer entered unhindered and descended deep into the depths of the sacred building, seeking the very heart of Aesir; the location where the enchantments and spells that held the city aloft were centered.

Yet the room was held against him by the Grand Magus himself and a small handful of remaining mages. Ignoring the challenges they called out to him, the dark sorcerer simply set his minions upon them and went to work unraveling the numerous enchantments centered at this location, intend upon crashing this city directly upon Avaren to destroy both in one fell blow. Yet the Grand Magus would not let both cities fall to ruin that easily and, breaking away from the fray, attacked the dark sorcerer, attempting to wrest him from his attempts to bring down the city.

Down in Avaren, the battle had ground to a stalemate after the main body of the invading horde had taken the castle and with great effort the warriors of Avaren had begun to retake their city, one street at a time. Though, when they began to hear tremendous rumblings from the city floating directly over their heads, the warriors feared that all their efforts might be for naught. Magical storms began to break out all around and across Aesir; not the targeted assault of before but the aftermath of powerful magicks clashing.

With a final explosion of magical energy, those dark forces still left within Avaren wavered and broke, leaving the warriors of Avaren several moments to let out cries of victory. Yet this momentary triumph was short lived, as Aesir suddenly began to fall. Though, it was not in an uncontrolled crash down upon Avaren; instead, it began descending at an angle, which took it away from Avaren at the same time that it lowered itself to the ground, coming at last to a controlled crash a safe distance away from the city of Avaren.

[Izlin]

Though Avaren and the people of Aesir had indeed weathered the storm, it was not without great costs. Large portions of the city of Avaren had been destroyed during the battle and Aesir was reduced to little more than ruins after its crash. Many lives had been lost and the Grand Magus hadn’t been seen since that final battle in the Sanctuary. Those few mages who been present and had survived Aesir’s crash were unable to give a definitive explanation of what had transpired. No one who could claim to have been directly present in the final conflict could be found. Of Repaer village, no one was certain of its fate.

This left only the Grand Master with any authority to lay claim to ruler ship of the now united people of Avaren and Aesir. The people of Aesir, long having heard of the happenings in Avaren bore great resentment for the Grand Master. Furthermore, those few people who had not been in Repaer when it was besieged were long through with the Grand Master’s corrupt, as they saw it, rule over the nation. As a primary decree, the Grand Master issued a formal apology for the actions that preceded Aesir’s destruction and granted citizens of Aesir and those who had been driven from Avaren full pardon for any crimes that they had been accused of during the past months, while granting them citizenship at the same time. Still, this was not enough to appease the entirety of the population, many of whom called for the Grand Master to step down for another to rule. To this extent he made a deal with the people, stating that, should a true heir to either royal bloodline be found, he would relinquish control of the city into their care and step back to his position as the head of the church.

To this, the final group was grudgingly satisfied and the people began to put their lives back together as reconstruction of the city commenced. Fortunately, to the great fortune of the newly united nation, an obscure heir of the original line of Avaren was discovered. Thus, true to his word, the Grand Master did step aside to allow the new queen take up the reigns of power. Yet, it was apparent that the queen was yet far too young and inexperienced to effectively govern a nation, so a regent was chosen to govern in the Queen's stead, who spent time in office only so long as it could take to organize a larger, more efficient council of rulers to effectively govern the united populations of Aesir and Avaren.

For the moment, there is peace.